The scam artists are still at it. In light of the recent announcements from the Obama Administration about the record setting national mortgage settlement with major banks, scam artists are reinvigorated with new ways to fool you.

How often can you say that your bank mailed you money? Thanks to a federal law that governs mortgages and escrow accounts, It happened to me. In 2011 my property taxes went down due to the housing crash (parts of Florida were hardest hit in the nation). Lenders calculate how much to collect each month for escrow based on the previous year's bills.

Yielding from pressure from the Obama administration, banks are escalating the number of modified mortgages which include principal reductions. Recent government data show that the number of second quarter modifications that reduced principal more than doubled from first quarter. The report reveals that 1 out of 10 modified loans involved reduced principal.

When homeowners decide to sell their property, one of the options that often comes to mind is to do a "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO). The benefit of this strategy is that it saves the seller from paying full commissions to real estate agents. The drawback is that it is up to the homeowner to market and show the property on their own. This takes a lot of time and know how.

Selling a home, especially in our current economic environment, can be challenging. No one is taught in school how to do this. Many real estate agents do not have the courage to advise their clients to make certain changes to a property to make it more appealing. Most buyers are looking for homes that are move-in ready and require little or no work or updating. There are five critical things.

The crash of our housing market in the past two years has caused an increase in a special type of transaction called a "short sale". A short sale is when a lender agrees to accept a mortgage payoff that is less than the balance owed. For example, if a homeowner owes $210,000 on the mortgage, but can only sell their house for $150,000, the lender may agree to release the homeowner from the debt.

Although President Obama's Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP) expired on September 15, 2011, unemployed and underemployed homeowners have other options for help. Here are some highlights of expired emergency homeowner's loan program: unlike other government designed loan modification programs, EHLP specifically targeted borrowers that were at least three months delinquent in payments.

Struggling homeowners frustrated with slow response from their lender would benefit from a proposed law that would speed up short sales. Congresswoman Susan Davis (Democrat from San Diego) submitted bill H. R. 3164, the Short Sale Transparency Act last month in an effort to help these struggling homeowners. What Is A Short Sale?

Why are banks offering thousands of dollars to delinquent homeowners? It certainly isn't because they are trying to be nice. The answer boils down to money. Bank of America is mailing out packets of paperwork to delinquent homeowners encouraging them to try a short sell. Also, the bank has started testing a program in areas of Florida with high percentages of foreclosures, offering up to $20,000.

Thanks to pressure from the Obama Administration, struggling homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage have more government help on the way. The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) which was designed to help lenders refinance millions of mortgages has been mostly a failure; less than a million made it through the process; and of those the vast majority were barely underwater, if at all.